As a development economist I've been on a long quest for policies that actually help promote lives and create long-term wealth. After much searching, I've found special economic zones and other special jurisdictions as holding the key to radical prosperity for the world’s poor today and for humanity at large. Privately governed institutions leverage the power of incentives that we find in a capitalism market system to provide for social services and public goods. Any economists out there looking for hopeful projects to benefit the world economy should start with this short list of core books on this topic. Fortunately, as time goes by, the reading list in this field keeps expanding.
I wrote
The Political Economy of Special Economic Zones: Concentrating Economic Development
This book allows you to think radically about how to create new community and novel forms of governance.
To unshackle ourselves from a history of destructive governance, the idea of Seasteading is to start afresh, in territories not yet governed by anyone, those at sea.
The authors make a compelling case for a seemingly wild idea.
In these “thought-provoking visions of the future” (The Wall Street Journal), Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman of the Seasteading Institute explain how ocean cities can solve many of our environmental, technological, and civic problems, and introduce the visionaries and pioneers who are now making seasteading a reality.
Our planet has been suffering from serious environmental problems and their social and political consequences. But imagine a vast new source of sustainable and renewable energy that would also bring more equitable economies. A previously untapped source of farming that could produce significant new sources of nutrition. Future societies where people could choose…
This book opens your eyes to the power of jurisdictional competition and brings hope of a future where governance is conducted for the benefit of the people being governed, rather than the benefit of government bureaucrats as is the case today.
An increasing amount of SEZs, startup societies, and privately run cities are springing up across the world. Judging by their progress, this optimistic part of human development is likely to continue.
This book opens your eyes to those developments and current opportunities for new and better governance.
Governments across the globe have begun evolving from lumbering bureaucracies into smaller, more agile special jurisdictions - common-interest developments, special economic zones, and proprietary cites. Private providers increasingly deliver services that political authorities formerly monopolized, inspiring greater competition and efficiency, to the satisfaction of citizens-qua-consumers. These trends suggest that new networks of special jurisdictions will soon surpass nation states in the same way that networked computers replaced mainframes. In this groundbreaking work, Tom W. Bell describes the quiet revolution transforming governments from the bottom up, inside-out, worldwide, and how it will fulfill its potential to bring more freedom, peace, and…
Startup Societies are the next generation of SEZs.
In this book, the authors lay out not only the technical, but also the cultural aspects of founding startup societies.
While mainstream people still see the prospects of these kinds of societies as radical, unrealistic, or even harmful, this book allows you not only to dream, but to realize that full-scale projects of new societies, and even new cities, are possible.
These can be governed in radically different ways than the towns and cities we are accustomed to, to the benefit of prosperity and cultural fulfillment of its people.
This book is crucial for practitioners of innovative cities, whether new SEZs, charter cities, or various forms of private communities.
It deals with legal aspects and administration in an instructive and professional way.
Anyone claiming that the community of people attempting to foster private and other forms of novel jurisdictions have not thought out the necessary details are proven wrong through this book.
It takes seriously the possible pushback of existing communities and the social institutions of education, healthcare, and the like, that will be needed for new communities to gain public support.
This book lays out the logic of governance without state-sanctioned governments.
For those not already convinced, it explains in detail how society functions, at its best, when run by a private corporation rather than entities with monopoly of force.
In the world of commerce at large, those who serve reaps the rewards. Governance is supposed to be about service.
When incentives of service align with those of profits, the probability of good governance is at its highest.
Imagine a system in which a private company offers you protection of life, liberty and property as a "government service provider". This service includes internal and external security, a legal and regulatory framework and independent dispute resolution. You pay a contractually fixed fee for these services per year. The government service provider, as the operator of the community, cannot unilaterally change this "citizens' contract" with you later on. As a "contract citizen", you have a legal claim to compliance and a claim for damages in the event the provider does not perform. You take care of everything else by yourself,…
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have become a popular development policy throughout the world over the last half a century. These zones form designated areas where governments offer businesses lower taxes, tariffs, and often lighter regulations.
This book examines SEZs from a political economy perspective, both to dissect the incentives of governments, zone developers, and exporters, and to uncover both the hidden costs and untapped potential of zone policies.
SEZs can change the politics of a country, by generating a transition from a system of rent-seeking to one of liberalized open markets. In revealing the hidden promise of SEZs, this book shows how the SEZ model of development can succeed in the future.
The Valor of Valhalla series by Martin Kearns is a pulse-pounding dark urban fantasy trilogy that fuses the raw power of Norse mythology with the grit of modern warfare. Set in a world where ancient gods and mythical creatures clash with secret military organizations and rogue heroes, the series follows a band of unseeming heroes who are bound to an ancient prophecy. As they navigate a dangerous web of deceit, sacrifice, and violent combat, they must confront not only their own demons but also the growing threat of Ragnarök—the Norse apocalypse.
At its heart, The Valor of Valhalla blends high-stakes…
In a battle between two ancient evils, can one naïve young man become the last hope against powerful creatures of legend?
David Dolan thinks he's already got the world figured out. But when a collapsed bridge plunges him into the icy Hudson, he's pulled deep into the deadly realm that exists between life and death. And with his earthly form trapped in a coma, he's vulnerable to the horde of demons hell-bent on his utter destruction.
Traversing the road to the afterlife, David seeks the wisdom and skills he needs to fight the demonic forces reigning havoc on his allies…
